Now count the number of lines you have just read using the numbers in the margin to guide you

If you went back to the beginning, add those lines onto the total number of lines in the article.

4. Multiply the number of lines you read by 9. 9 is the average number of words per line of this reading. Number of lines read X 9 words per line = Words per Min Important note: You may be uncomfortable with your comprehension. Go to "What, You Don't Understand?" later in this chapter for some reassuring words.

5. Track your Time Trial score: Go to your Personal Progress Chart and fill in only your Words per Minute and the date you did this exercise. Compare your speed scores to the previous readings.

Just when you thought you learned all you needed to know about increasing reading speed, here are two more methods to try.

Fast Tracks: Reading Between the Lines

To help break the overlearned habits of focusing on every or almost every word on a line, you might find it helpful to practice reading between the lines. You do this by stopping not on the line of print itself, but on the white space just above each line. It is possible to read words only by looking at the top half of letters. Try to figure out what each sentence says below. The first one has the top half of the letters covered while the second one has the bottom half covered. Which one is easier to predict?

You can practice reading between the lines anytime you read. For example, try reading between the lines with the paragraph below.

When you read between the lines, you become aware of a new sensation of freedom from individual words as fixation points. This sensation will be uncomfortable at first but can lead to considerable increases of speed.

Reading between the lines is a technique perfectly suited for your daily reading. You can also use it with key words, phrases, and/or key phrases.

Indenting

Indenting means simply stopping your eyes on the first line about half an inch inside the left margin and ending it about a half an inch before the right margin. The lines down the sides of these

paragraphs show approximately where your first and last fixations should fall. As a result, you can eliminate a total of one full fixation each line.

The first several times you try this technique, you can actually draw similar lines down the sides of the page as reminders to your eyes until you feel comfortable. If you are stopping your eyes seven or eight times a line, by cutting down just one stop per line, you can increase your reading speed by more than 10 percent. Try it!

Turbo Comprehension: What, You Don't Understand?

At this point in the faster reading process, you may be feeling uncertain about your

comprehension. And rightfully so. Remember the window analogy from the beginning of this chapter?

The brain is overwhelmed by all the information you are feeding it.

By using these strategies on your reading in the next few days, you will find that your conscious mind begins to catch on. Reading faster then becomes a tool to help you get the comprehension you want.

It is possible that if I had provided comprehension questions for time Trial No. 4, you could have fared better than you thought. This is because the unconscious mind knows the answers even though the conscious mind isn't aware yet. Good comprehension depends on many factors. If ten people read the same thing, you could easily get varying opinions about its meaning. This is because you read with your own filters based on your background knowledge and experiences.

So comprehension is made up of what is really said and how you interpret what is said. Any- one who has ever been in a book club knows about the heated discussions that ensue as a result of

different minds reading the same book.

Some factors that influence good comprehension include:

•Knowing why you are reading and what you are reading for (Day 3).

•Connecting new information to existing knowledge (Day 5).

•Concentrating when you read (day 3).

•Being willing to receive more information — not preoccupied (Day 3, Day 5).

•Knowing where the author is going before you begin (Day 5).

•Adjusting your reading speed according to your purpose (Day 8).

•Understanding the vocabulary (Day 9).

•Evaluating what was really said first, then interpreting it your own way (Day 6).

•Reading actively (Days 1-10).

On the Road to Building Proficient Skills

This chapter introduces many reading methods, which I call tools. However, these tools are not skills. Skills are built over time by repetitively using tools.

A familiar analogy can be made by comparing reading to golf or tennis. Pretend you are an average golfer or tennis player. If your goal is to improve your game, you must learn the elements of better strokes and practice specific exercises to perfect the skill. Similarly in reading, you must learn the elements of efficient and effective reading and practice specific exercises to master the skill.

Initially, you are acutely aware of each new movement you make. You may feel less competent than before and wonder if the new moves really work. But as you persist, the intense awareness and feelings of awkwardness recede, paving the way for increased confidence and competence.

Another Important Word About Your Brain

Your brain is pre-wired with the neurons needed to learn language. If you watch a child develop from infancy, you witness his or her speech development. Your brain, though innately able to learn language, is not pre-wired for reading. Reading needs to be taught. You first learn how to decode letters, then words, until the act of reading becomes automatic or procedural. Learning how to read faster is like understanding how to decode words in a more efficient way.

Pat Wolfe, an educational consultant from Mind Matters, Inc., and a specialist in brain research, says that procedural memory is sometimes called muscle memory. She says that if you use a sequence repeatedly, eventually it becomes automatic. Eventually the sequence becomes instinctive as you become more of an expert, leaving the brain with less work to execute the procedure. If you do it enough times, you instruct the brain to begin the sequence, which in turn triggers your body's memory of the procedure. In effect, you program your brain through repetition of movement and activity.

Eventually the sequence is automatic, like learning to tie your shoes, driving a stick shift car, playing the piano, or riding a bicycle. Though the faster reading skills can become automatic, your brain must still be active, conscious and mindful to trigger them. So each time you experiment with faster reading strategies, the closer you are to becoming the master of the procedure.

Start Your Engines: The Two Finger Pull

The Two Finger Pull is a pacer that uses the index fingers of both hands. They help focus your eyes primarily on the line you are reading as well as keep your place reading down the lines. Choose a page in a magazine, newspaper, or this book for this exercise. Make sure it is on a flat surface, not balanced upright in your hands. Place the index finger of your left hand at the beginning of the line and the index finger of your right hand at the end of the same line. Your fingers are now framing the line of text. There should be nothing else in your hands. As you read, quickly move your eyes from the left finger to the right and back again, slowly but continually moving your fingers down the left and right side of the column. You can use key words, phrases, or key phrases to help you go faster. As you get more accustomed to the method, try moving your index fingers a little faster.

Gauge Your Attitude

Let's take an attitude check. Mentally fill in the blank of the following statement:

I am a(n) ____________ reader.

Is your reading attitude changing?

Pit Stop: Tip of the Day

When starting to use the faster reading methods presented in this chapter, I suggest you

experiment only on reading material that is familiar. Remember initially you are going for speed, so you want to make comprehension as easy as possible. In the first few days of learning how to drive a stick shift car, would you like to drive in San Francisco or Boston? Or would you rather drive on the flat, no-traffic, straight plains of the Midwest where there are no great driving challenges and no surprises? In a short time, though, you would be able to navigate the steep San Francisco hills or the famous traffic circles in Boston. Just get used to the mechanics of the car first.

In Day 5, you will learn ways to obtain background knowledge from nonfiction material before reading it. It will also be a priceless tool for weeding through your read later stack.